Tomorrow, I am going to call my congressman to urge him to vote NO on H.R. 3685, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2007 (ENDA for short), as introduced on September 27, 2007.
H.R. 3685 is the version of ENDA that prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation alone. The original version of ENDA, H.R. 2015, prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
It is my opinion that the current version of ENDA, H.R. 3685, is a toothless bill which will protect in a meaningful way only a small fraction of the gay, lesbian, and bisexual community, and virtually no one who is transgender or otherwise gender variant. Because of its legislative history of being derived from a broader bill, there is little chance that it will be interpreted more broadly by the courts to include some gender-based protections, even for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. Simply put, it does not offer enough protection to warrant the political compromises needed to ensure its passage.
The original ENDA, H.R. 2015, is far more comprehensive and would give meaningful employment protection not just to the entire GLBT community, but to a significant portion of the non-GLBT community as well. I'll explain why below the fold.
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